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Had a surprising weekend with my stang 'Penny' guys. I had signed up for the Keels & Wheels "Concourse de' Elegance" show in Seabrook, TX. Ive been twice before (last before covid), but this show is full of amazing vehicles, and I have been happy they let me even show. Well, I wanted to see if there was anything I could do to "up my game" in a short amount of time, and I noticed that the trunk was 10pts of the score. I've never liked the stock treatment and said I wouldn't do it, but I never seem to get around to "doing it right" like I said I would. So, to try to improve my score I bought the stock trunk liner, jack bag, and spare-tire cover. Spent a little bit of time laying it in there, and trying to make it look decent. Came out like this: All I had to say was: "Well, it certainly looks better than nothing/what I had". So I went with it. The surprise came when I checked the judges sheet Sunday afternoon: "Best in Class"!! Unbelievable! I've only put the car in maybe a half-dozen shows, and I've never done better than second place anywhere. But the real surprise is that the show in Seabrook is one of the more prestigious shows (at least around here). It rained on Saturday, but didn't take any sunshine out of the day for me. Aaron Shelby was here, and gave me a big "congrats" when I left the show - certainly an amazing day for me:

@AusTex70 I saw this post and I live off Anderson Mill in Cedar Park. If you want to get together, drink a beer or work on stuff let me know. My 69 is in the paint shop for a while. I've taken about every part off it and put them all back on so I could help with your reassembly.

Welcome to 69stang.com. Looks like you definitely picked up a good looking project. Looking forward to seeing it as you progress along on it. Keep us posted on it.

Now that the car is cooling well, we decided to address a leak on the valve cover. The PO had told me that the guy he bought the car from had "Refreshed" the engine. Not sure what he his version of "refreshed" is, but to my surprise the heads are 2V, and not original to the car, but look good, and run well.

Running update. I changed mufflers as the ones on it were just too loud. They had a real high noise to them and were just not practicable. So I spoke to the muffler guy who I bought the pipes off. He recommended Redback mufflers, which are made locally here. They are a triflow design so have perforated pipes inside with baffles. The flow needs to go in, come back then go back out but at high load the holes allow the gases to basically straight line outta there. He was pretty impressed with the amount of air coming out of the pipes. He said it was better than the 502 in his 80's something Chev Caprice. That made me feel pretty chuffed. Result is much better noises levels are driving speed, no raspy intake on over run. He tells me as they get more carbon in them it will quieten down at idle. Pulled the engine temp sender, cleaned off the thread sealer - which was very little - and re-installed. Next, I had issues with the Sniper. It started running real bad and the AFR was going straight to 36.5. Wouldn't idle, barely revved and was pumping out black crud from the exhaust. This isn't my area of expertise so hitting up the Holley forum for answers, as It started right after I had the mufflers changed, the first question was did you unhook the battery? D'Oh, the shop did not so I was freaking about fried electronics. I was told it was probably a bad WB02 sensor. What was getting me was it would run fine from start, then when it was stopped it would go bad on restart. Looking at the sensor I had managed to place it near flat in the pipe, so I guess moisture was accumulating and killing it. Expensive mistake. Today, I put a new bung in closer to the collectors and with more of a downward angle. Fitted a Bosch sensor to it. Deleted the file from the Sniper, loaded it all up again using the setup wizard. Before driving it I also fixed the radio power wiring. I had put it to what I thought was the original radio power wire, but the new unit must take more amps as it kept blowing the little 1AG 4 amp fuse. I bought an aftermarket blade fuse holder and intended to hook it into a wire with switched power. Of course, being 'rebuilt' this was not going to be a simple job. Turns out the aftermarket voltage regulator fitted was just spliced into a wire, no solder or anything, and a bit of electrical tape wound round it. And the tape has falling off the exposed wiring was right next to the dash support bracket that goes to the booster. And the tapped wire was falling off. A bit of work and I had soldered a new wire in, terminated it to a clip plug and ran 2 power wires out to both the voltage reg and the radio. Put a 15 amp fuse in the radio circuit and put it all back together. Took it for a run, about 6 miles. Temp gauge was working as it should. Thankfully it ran great, no issues, started learning again and was as smooth as a late model car. I really am a fan of the Sniper, it is a smooth system and the engine runs fine. Cold starts and running are nothing like the good old days of pulling a choke and dipping the clutch. The best bit is with the new engine I just enter the CID, cam and ignition type into the screen, tell it what cam it has and hit save and it just runs. Well worth the cost. No going to a dyno, hoping the guy knows what he's doing and worrying about it. Before the WB02 broke I had started to lean on it a bit. Purely for research purposes Officer. 1st gear it just lights up the rears at will, regardless of road speed. 2nd gear on a rolling launch it will light the rears up. It's a bit grumpy in gear under 1,200 rpm and will shunt, but also happy to take corners in 3rd gear and pull away cleanly. I have not yet taken it on a road with a limit higher than 40mph so not sure what revs it's doing. Hopefully with a bit more running around the suburb I can iron out all the glitches and then take it for a decent run. The only hassles I have is the power steering pulley is not right, it appears the belt is slipping as I have black dots all overt he front of the engine. It is also very heavy when parking but improves when a few revs are up. Spent a bit of time trying to find an alternate. Borgeson advised they only supply the thin groove pulley - despite (as far as I know) every small block Mustang has a 1/2" wide power steer belt. Why they supply a thinner pulley I don't know. It seems a pulley off a local Falcon is the answer and I am going to a wreckers on the weekend to suss it out. The bolts supplied with the pump are also BS. Saginaw recommends studs for the rear mount pumps as they seal the canister, but Borgeson give you bolts. Along with the shiite bracket to mount it, I am not impressed at all with their set up. The rear main is also leaking. I am super pissed at this, it's not that much work to change but I really do not need to do it, especially as Scott Drake promotes themselves as high quality parts. Maybe it's me and installed it wrong, but I put enough silicone on both sides of the seal and gasket I would have thought. Lastly, my new-found power level may be over powering the shocks. Or, I need to adjust to a 50+ year old car handling. It feels as if the car is hauling sideways when giving it hard acceleration and seems to wallow on shallow corners. When you stop accelerating it then moves back the other way. I realise that's not a great description. It has Koni shocks all around, slightly heavier springs in front (along with alloy heads and intake) and standard springs in back. Maybe I am just used to late model cars with steering racks, watts links and sharp suspension.

Congratulations Jay! Your 69 looks sharp.

I've been following your build. I have family and work in Houston, so Iam there often. Iam a Vintage Air dealer.. A/C is on the list!

Iam in North Austin. As for the "Problem Areas", the entire car is a bit of a basket case. It was obvious that the past owner did not know anything about Mustangs, first thing I did was rework the cooling system. It would not heat up past 160, I found crud stuck in the T-stat, and no restrictor plate and incorrect T-stat for a Cleveland. So, I flushed the block, had the radiator boiled and tested, all new hoses and correct T-stat set up. I also bought the correct fan shroud for the car, installed a 7 blade fan and fan clutch used on the cobra Jet engine. Now that the car is warming up and cooling properly, I can focus on reworking the Holley Sniper and Fuel system. I had a hard time tracking down the proper fan clutch to use with the 7 blade fan I ordered the fan off of NPD. 8600-12 FAN BLADE ASSY, 7 BLADE 8146-5 FAN SHROUD Amazon: Dorman 23733: Water Pump Stud Kit - 5/16-18 x 7/16 and 5/16-24 x 5/8 Overall Length of 1-1/4 Hayden Automotive 2747 Premium Fan Clutch

Put the Grande hub caps I got from Vic on my 69 Grande. Thanks Vic.

IIRC ... 140 MPH Speedometers were only used on 1969 Shelbys, so pretty much the rarest 1969-70 cluster out there. That cluster is probably worth a whole lot more than a Deluxe 120MPH 1970 Tach Cluster. May as well try and find the correct cluster and re-sell that one. Doug

Here is what I found when I went to purchase the car. ;) I was able to drive it home, and it took two more trips to his house to pick up all the parts. The good news is that all the parts I needed where there. In talking to him, I think he was over his head on the project and just wanted to get out from under it.

Today was more of the same. Media blasting and primer on parts. We also let the parts bask in the sun. Tomorrow hopefully we assemble again and get ready to weld. Josh has been doing an awesome job with the primer. Parts are turning out very nice!

I also include a few pictures of our water and oil removal systems. I have what is essentially a transmission cooler on the compressor that takes the hot wet air and cools it off. You can’t touch the copper tubing going into it as it is way too hot, but the pipe coming out is quite cool. Ambient, maybe a touch more. Works well. There is a water and oil separator that takes out the condensed water before passing the air into the tank. Also, I have a desiccant dryer that uses 5lbs of desiccant beads. It is for spraying or blasting only.

Not quite related to the mustang, but sort of. Getting my car trailer ready for some car show future events, installed the second battery and some charging and lighting hardware, also lighting control panel, LED lights all the way around the outside of the trailer and inside. A way to keep my wiring skills up to date.

took some time today. first right height, roughly under 25" new height is above 25"

While I was in high school, i stumbled across a red 1969 Mustang Fastback for sale. The asking price was $6K and it was in pretty decent shape. The downside is that as a high school student I didn't have the $6K. But I was able to secure a personal loan from a family friend, with the agreement that I had to pay it off within 1 year. I worked my ass off that year and made the final payment just before the 1 year mark. Later that same year, I enlisted in the Marine Corps, and after several months of basic training and then technical training for my job within the military, I went home on leave and picked up the Mustang. I drove it to Virginia, and then several months later I crossed the country with it to San Diego, CA. I planned to be in San Diego for at least 3 years (I never left), so I decided to take the opportunity to go through the car, restoring and repairing what I could. Unfortunately, I bit off more than my wallet could handle at the time (hey, who hasn't with these things?), so the project ended up taking much longer than I had originally planned. So much that I eventually, and very reluctantly, decided to sell the car to an older gentlemen that was planning on finishing the restoration with his son. I have no idea what ever happened to that car, but I hope it's still on the road and not sitting in a junk yard somewhere. I always regretted selling that car, and over the years I'd looked casually at picking up another one but it never seemed like the right time. That is until last year, when I was window shopping online and found another red 1969 Mustang Fastback for just the right price. Not perfect, but not a bucket of junk either, which is exactly what I wanted. So after a few exchanges with the seller, I took a road trip to Vegas to see the car in person. I test drove it and it was like a freaking time machine. As soon as I sat behind the wheel I felt 18 again. I bought it on the spot. So that was a year ago, and I've been slowly going through the car making upgrades and improvements. I replaced the cooling system, swapped in a completed MSD system, and upgraded the stock dash instrument cluster with one from Dakota Digital. Then earlier this year I came across a local body shop that does absolutely amazing work (Sylvester's Customs). I drove out to see the owner and spent a few hours learning about his shop, his employees, and his process. At the end of the conversation he agreed to put my car on the waiting list and I couldn't be more excited! Now it seems that I'm all in on a restoration/rejuvenation. I'm not planning on going all original, since I like the idea of taking advantage of the 50 years of auto advancements since the car was launched, but I'm mostly keeping with the original look of the 69 Mach 1. I'll be using this thread to keep track of all the work that I do to the car over time. Right now I'm in the middle of swapping out the Ford 8inch rearend with a 9inch from Currie, and replacing the C4 with a Tremec TKX swap from SST. My original Mustang from high school: My new Mustang:

I went to pick up my power window kit for my '70 convertible. These come highly recommended from local restoration shops. I have no affiliation with the supplier, had never been there before, but as it was driving distance, I decided to go over and pick up my window kit. What I found was a small family run business in a small town called East Bend, NC, population 620. It is located on the East Bend of the Yadkin River, near Winston Salem. The owner personally hooked me up with the right regulators, motors, and switch combination. I went back in the shop, and all of the steel parts are laser cut right there. All of the hardware was very high quality. I chose the billet switch option, which uses a chrome plated billet base for the 4-switch option I chose for my console. The kit uses brand new GM switches and harness connectors. So, if you are looking for an honest to god Made in the USA power window kit, check these guys out.